for you to keep out of my way for the rest of the flight so please make sure you do,” she said icily.
“It will be my pleasure, Your High and Mightiness.” He left her standing at the table and entered the door to the gymnasium, slamming it behind him.
Both of them managed to avoid the other for the remainder of the flight with Lara reading umpteen magazines, while he spent an eternity working out in the gym. She then had to wait for him to shower before she could prepare for bed.
The stop in Singapore to refuel the plane and change crews was very brief, and as they took off for Challoner, she settled into her large double bed aware the crew had set up sleeping quarters for Jack in the forward cabin.
Before going to sleep, she took out her new journal that she had arranged for one of the security men to buy the previous day. She had gone hot and cold when she realized she had left her other journal under the armchair cushion in Jack’s cottage. Panicking, she wondered who she could ask to retrieve it, knowing in the wrong hands it would be dynamite. Then common sense prevailed. Housework wasn’t Jack’s forté and the journal wasn’t likely to be found for years. People wouldn’t even know who she was then.
She began to write.
I am so mad with Jack, I could throw him out of this plane.
Just when I think we are getting on okay, he lashes at me with that barbed tongue of his. He has a major hang up now he has found out who I am and honestly, I don’t care that he’s a fisherman. In fact, I’m glad. I love him as he is. If only we didn’t ricochet between rowing like crazy and wanting to make love.
I’ll never be able to hold out against him if he keeps looking at me the way he does. Oh, he makes my toes curl!
There are difficult times ahead, dear diary. I don’t know how Jack and I are going to manage.
Welcome to my world, Jack Lucas.
Six
“Are we going straight to the palace?”
Jack swung himself into the chair opposite her aware they would shortly be landing at Challoner. He had spent the last two hours on the flight deck talking to the pilot and first officer and had enjoyed their company. It also meant Lara and he could continue to avoid one another and the possibility of having more rows. But the time had come to be civil, particularly since they would be spending so much time together during the next three weeks.
She looked up from the book she was reading. “Yes. But there’s no need to change.”
“I wasn’t going to.” Jack pursed his lips.
He didn’t mean to be uncooperative but straight away her comment had irritated him. He consciously relaxed his shoulders trying to shake the tension from them following the hours spent in the aircraft. He hadn’t been to Europe before, never having the need. All of his long haul trips had involved visits to Japan, China and Indonesia as part of his negotiations for the many businesses under his control, particularly the lucrative areas of aqua-culture and export trade. Although he had his own private jet and worked on his computer during most of these flights, he still found that time passed slowly and tediously.
Lara appeared to ignore his glib comment. “I’ve received a call from the queen and she has asked us to join the king and her for luncheon. It will be about ten o’clock in the morning when we land so this will give us time to shower and change.”
Watching her put into place her ever-so-cool façade was quite fascinating. The original Ice Princess. Yet he knew he could break through those barriers with a few words, or a touch of his hand on that soft cheek or the caress of his lips against her elegant neck.
He had been fascinated by their fiery exchanges earlier. She had come alive, her eyes sparkling into his and her cheeks pink with anger. He had met her only a few days ago and yet he knew her. He knew her…intimately.
“Do you have a suit to wear?”
He blinked, endeavoring to put his lustful thoughts aside. “Yes. I’ve brought a suit with me.”
“It will be a reasonably informal luncheon. My brother, Carl, will attend as well. The press office is leaking the word that you are more of a close friend of Carl’s than mine.”
He